Who Am I? is the second studio album by English indie pop band Pale Waves. It was released on 12 February 2021 by Dirty Hit and Interscope Records. The album debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and is a collection of pop rock tracks destined for the charts. The second album was one that faced a run of bad situations, in the near-three years since their debut album, they’ve negotiated a never-ending tour; the fracturing of a crucial creative partnership between lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie and drummer Ciara Doran; plus in February 2020, the band’s tour bus was involved in a near-fatal road accident when travelling between shows in Sweden and Germany, where the bus slid on an icy road and rolled into a ditch. The band and their crew members did not sustain any serious physical injuries.
Founded in 2014 when vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie and drummer Ciara Doran met at university in Manchester. They gained international attention three years later, when the 1975 frontman Matty Healy took the band under his wing, signing them to his label, Dirty Hit, directing a music video, and occasionally serving as producer. Pale Waves debut album basically sounded like a 1975’s recorded, loaded with bubbly synths, 1980s-style guitar riffs, and syrupy vocal melodies.
Now a thing of the past Pale Waves head in a more modern direction, On Who Am I?, Pale Waves forgo ’80s revival entirely to take cues from Baron-Gracie’s hero Avril Lavigne and shared elements of 2000s singer-songwriters like Michelle Branch or Kelly Clarkson: effervescent electric hooks, strummy acoustic backup, and demure harmonies. A great example of this is Who Am I? opening song “Change,” which sets the mood and sound for the rest of the album.
On Who Am I? the band translates their many inspirations into their own brand of indie pop that feels perfectly fit for 2021, with their lyrics bouncing between relationships, identity and mental health. Regarding the album’s influences, Baron-Gracie told NME, “I know there are a lot of my fans that love Avril so I know they’re gonna dissect my album and know what I’ve pulled from Avril. I went back to my roots with this album with someone like Alanis as well. She’s just unapologetic, and I wanted to be like that in this album.” With the album, Baron-Gracie, who has since come out as gay, also expressed a greater desire to discuss her sexuality after taking inspiration from bandmate Ciara Doran who is non-binary. During the recording of the first album, My Mind Makes Noises, Baron-Gracie felt that she “wasn’t confident about myself or with my sexuality” but now is “proud to own my sexuality. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders”.
The second single, entitled “She’s My Religion”, was released on 15 December 2020. On the track, Baron-Grace said that “‘She’s My Religion’ isn’t the standard or typical love song” and that she “wanted to write a song that used pronouns because for so many years I didn’t in my music, and now I realise how important that is, to normalise LGBTQ relationships in a world that needs it”.
On their sophomore album, Pale Waves comes into their own with a whole new level of confidence. While Baron-Gracie wore her sexuality on her sleeve lyrically, drummer Ciara Doran took to Twitter to come out as transgender/nonbinary days before the album’s release. These personal strides are reflected in the band’s musicality as they take on a greater variety of sounds between each song. Who Am I? goes between melancholy ballads, poignant love songs and screamable rock anthems, the album displays a range and skill that make Pale Waves a force to be reckoned with.
Rating: ★★★★✩
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